Hiroto
by beautiful-surreal
Summary: Second Installment for the 'Birth' trilogy of one shots, which chronologically takes place after 'Toriko'.  Yusei and Aki are rushing to hospital when Aki goes into labor, but what happens when they don't get there in time?


**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything I didn't create.

**A/N: **Hello everyone. I had been thinking about writing a YuseixAki Birth fic for awhile now, but an unknown review really made me decide to get up and try it. So this is part two of a 'trilogy' however lame that feels to be using that term for my fanfiction. XD The next fiction in the Birth series will be about Crow and Mai, who is my character from 'What Words Can't Say'. After that, I'll be adding chapters onto the stories one by one as the children grow up, from the perspective of each of the oldest children (unless a younger child's POV is required to move the plot along). Well, enjoy, and don't forget to review. 3

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I sat in the car next to Aki, wincing slightly as she exerted extreme pressure on my hand as she went through a contraction. She was a few days premature, but well within the safety zone for a healthy birth. Nothing too grand had happened, like when Toriko was born and Jack had whipped Carly off to the hospital after he realized that her water had broken at the movie premier about us. I mentally sighed with relief when Aki released the pressure on my hand.

We had been in the garage as I was working on fixing Crow's Black Feather as Akito had heaved up on it a few days ago and it had gotten into the finer parts of the machine, which pretty much prevented it from working. I'd never seen a more apologetic four-year-old. He knew how much his father loved his D-wheel. Aki had just pushed herself off of the tabletop that the computers were on to go to the kitchen when I heard a sudden splat, and froze. It was almost like a moment from a TV soap when we had slowly looked up at each other and our gazes met. Aki's eyes had been wide and surprised, and her hand on her stomach had told me everything I had needed to know.

So that was how we had ended up in Carly's 50 MPH car, heading through a traffic jam towards the Neo Domino hospital, Carly blaring her horn repeatedly and yelling in a panic out her window.

"I've got a pregnant woman giving birth in the back seat now move over!"

"Shut up! If I don't get to work, my boss will fire me!"

"Don't you use that line on me!"

I was very hard pressed not to roll my eyes. _It's not the other drivers that need to move out of your way, it's your car that needs to speed up._ I gritted my teeth, outwardly the picture of calm. I'd have to see what I could do to Carly's engine after this to make it go faster. This was one experience I didn't care to repeat.

"Yusei…" I looked at my reclining wife lovingly, reassuringly. I was scared, but not as scared as Aki was. Mai had told me about that once when Aki wasn't around to hear her. She had admitted that she had never been more unprepared as she had been when she had felt the sudden fear when her contractions had first hit her when she was giving birth to Akito. She told me that it was the fear of the unknown. So it was only natural for Aki to be so afraid. I squeezed her hand reassuringly, and she managed to smile at me weakly before her face screwed up in pain as another contraction hit her. I couldn't help but frown in worry. The contractions were coming on in greater strengths with less time between them. As far as I knew, that could only mean one thing. _The baby's coming, and it wants to get out of there fast._ An edge of panic hit me, and I swallowed nervously. _If we don't get to the hospital in time…_ A mental image of the car pulled up on the side of the freeway as the baby was born hit me, and suddenly I felt very, very cold. _I don't know a thing about delivering babies!_ "Yusei." I felt Aki squeezing my hand, and I blinked to see Aki smiling reassuringly up at me through the pain. "It'll be alright." I managed a weak smile. _What a role reversal._ I had to be strong for her.

"Carly." I spoke, my voice calm and cool as Jack's wife turned in her seat to look at me. "Is there any other way?" _To the hospital?_

"Well, there's the-"

"Take it." I missed Carly's disgruntled expression as I turned back to face my wife, holding her hand in both of my own as I looked reassuringly deeply into her eyes. "We'll get there Aki. Hold on." _Please hold on._ Before long, I felt Carly take a right off the freeway, and the light started to flicker as we started passing under trees at a speed just within the safety limit. Which- in my opinion- was still far too slow. It seemed like this route was longer. Then Aki gasped, her grip nearly crushing my hand, her eyes wide as I winced.

"Carly! Pull over! It's **coming**!" All thoughts of the pain in my hand left me as my eyes widened and ice rushed through my veins.

"_What?_" I breathed fearfully, starting to tremble as Carly obeyed orders like a militant, pulling to the curb in what at a glance appeared to be a residential area. Carly flung her car door open and rushed to my side, opening the door behind me so I nearly fell out, my wife's legs facing me.

"**THE BABY'S COMING!**" She shrieked, and a flock of birds took off in alarm from the neighboring trees, as the curtains were pulled back in all the houses along the street. I stumbled out of the car, my hand still captured in my wife's vice-like grip, my eyes wide with alarm.

"_That's Yusei Fudo."_

"_Didn't he win the Fortune Cup?"_

"_-And the WRGP."_

"_It's the King."_ I brushed all of those whispered comments aside as I tried to gather my thoughts, and I looked at Carly for advice as she lifted Aki's skirt to peer underneath. She hissed in alarm, her eyes wide with impending panic. This must've been the third time fear had made me freeze.

"I can see the baby's head. Man, she's an impatient one." Carly muttered quickly to herself. "Yusei." She said, stepping back and commanding my attention. "Pull your wife closer to you so that her feet are resting on the doorframe." I obeyed her without a second thought. "Good. Now lift your wife's skirt and do what you can while I go and call the paramedics." She said quickly, turning to the side while looking at the houses. "You might have to deliver it for all I know." My eyes widened as my mouth dropped open as Carly sprinted off towards the nearest house, whose door opened before she even reached it. _What!_ If I had spoken, I'm sure I'd have squeaked the question into the higher octaves.

"Yusei." Aki called my name, and I jerked my face around to look at the bottom of her swollen belly as she released my hand and propped herself up so that she could look over the swell of her stomach. She smiled reassuringly at me. "You can do this." She grimaced in pain, and her head disappeared behind the mountain of her belly. She relaxed, and she murmured once again: "You can do this."

For a moment, I was still. She believed in me. Aki believed I could do this. I watched as her legs tensed as another contraction hit her, and she bit back a cry of pain. I blinked. _I can do this._ I pushed Aki's skirt up past her knees and looked. There was one thing that I noticed. _He has my hair._

Everything passed by in a dream-like state after that. I calmly and reassuringly spoke to Aki, being very positive, although I can't remember what I had said. The child's head was being pushed out, and I can dimly recall slinging off my jacket to catch the little guy as his shoulders slipped out. I remember our tattoos lighting up on our forearms as I reached to place my hand on Aki's belly for some reason I could not remember, although later she had told me that my hand had felt very warm. I can remember congratulating her as our son's hips slipped out, and telling her that it was almost over as she took another breath for one last push. I can remember our son's weight falling reassuringly solid into my hands as I held my jacket up to catch the last of him. I can remember the sensation of the awed smile spreading across my face as I looked at him, wrapping him up and telling Aki in a reverent tone that we had a son. I remember instinctually rubbing his body when he didn't make a sound, turning him on his belly and rubbing his back so that he coughed and cried, the sound like music to my ears when I heard the proof that he was alive. It was then that the ambulance had pulled up and the doctor inside had taken over, checking on the health of the child and my wife.

Now, I sat in the backseat of Carly's car as she drove us back home, Aki asleep on my shoulder and our son, Hiroto cleaned, wrapped in a blanket and re-wrapped back up in my jacket that a paramedic had cleaned, sleeping soundly in my arms. I couldn't quite believe it, and I kept placing feather-light touches with my fingers onto his soft cheeks, just to remind myself that he was real. _Hiroto._ I thought, looking softly down at the sleeping baby boy with dark hair that tufted up into soft points, with barely visible gold and red highlights. _Hiroto._ His eyes were the shape of Aki's and I didn't know what color his eyes were yet, because he hadn't opened them for me to see. _Hiroto._

Carly pulled up in front of the garage, and giving me a knowing look, slipped out of the car door and quietly entered the building.

"Aki?" I nudged my incredible wife gently, and she stirred, murmuring sleepily as she reached up to rub her eyes before opening them and looking at me. I smiled at her, love shining in my eyes, and she smiled, still half-way awake. "We're home." She smiled, and nodded sleepily, scooting over to her door, but I shook my head with a small smile as I handed Hiroto to her, her gaze instantly captured by his sleeping face. I gently slipped my hands under her knees and behind her back and pulled her to me, slipping my arms underneath her before lifting her bridal-style. Aki leaned against my shoulder, cradling Hiroto to her chest with a natural instinct, her gaze soft and full of wonder. "He's beautiful Aki. You did wonderfully." She smiled.

"Thank you, Yusei. So did you." _No one else can say that they did what you did today._ I smiled. What she was thinking was clear.

_Thank you._ Slowly, I carried my wife and son to the door, which Aki opened and closed behind us. Then the lights came on, and turning around, Jack, Crow, Bruno, Mai and Carly were all beaming up at us, making sure to be quiet as they welcomed us back and as Crow jibbed Jack about how I was braver than him. With a slight smile, but otherwise ignoring them, I walked smoothly down the stairs, and gently lowered my beloved wife to the couch as I sat beside her as I looked at the newest member to our family, sleeping peacefully in my love's arms. _Hiroto. _I thought, as I kissed the side of Aki's head, smiling. _He's our son._


End file.
